Topic: "How to be Successful in Real Estate without a Real Estate License"

Whitney Nicely is the queen of real estate investing in east Tennessee.

Whitney started to chase her passions and fine tune her skills in the real estate market after college. She flipped her first house in 2009. Last year, she flipped six houses while planning her October wedding. Whitney’s real estate portfolio has grown from zero, ziltch, nada to 17 residential houses, 19 apartment units and 7 chunks of vacant land across east Tennessee.

Whitney believes everyone should control their own destiny by investing in real estate as soon and as much as possible. It doesn’t take a trust fund or $100k in the bank to get started in real estate. In fact, Whitney teaches people how they can use no money, no credit and no banks to finance real estate deals across the country. She’s fired up about teaching people the fast, fun, and profitable way to be successful in real estate. Whitney is the Principal Broker for Whitney Buys Houses, LLC. Whitney will teach you how to invest in real estate for profit and achieve lifelong goals.

Ready to make a change in your business? Instead of being stuck in trying to figure out how to do it – or what to do first – break it down into steps. Start with a vision for what you really want, then work from there.

Ready to make changes in your business, but not sure where to
start? Join my newsletter list so that you’ll get updates on the launch
of my online course for entrepreneurs. Join the list here: http://eepurl.com/cLDzbY

How many times have you seen the quote, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."?

And yet for me, it didn't sink in until I was at a point in my business in which I felt stuck. I was a Jack-of-all-trades, doing everything in my business on my own.

I was handling all the overwhelm of emails and doing the busy work of admin, which had me too consumed with details to put energy into expansion and marketing. I was working in the business rather than on the business.

My business needed to grow, not to mention I was exhausted, burnt-out, and even becoming resentful.

I knew somethings had to change. I needed to create a team and I needed a support system to uplift me and propel me forward.

I started my search and joined different communities online (I live in a very small town in South Georgia and there is nothing in my area). I wanted a group of women entrepreneurs who would understand my frustrations, and that I could feel a sense of belonging to; as it can be a bit awkward socially when none of your friends are entrepreneurs.

That's when things started to change and I felt a shift. I could be myself with this group, they shared my lifestyle and understood what I was going through. We were part of a small program, after which we created an accountability group. Basically, we meet once a week to see where we are at and what we needed help with. These groups can become your soul sisters and your support system.

Your community members can see the world from different angles, they can offer their unique perspective and real-world experience, and that might be just the push that you need to move forward.

You can all learn from each other's experiences (good or bad) and share information that can be very valuable to each other even if you are in different industries. The best A-HA moments that I had were talking with other women entrepreneurs, who were in very different markets than mine, but sparked something in my brain that I could apply to my business.

The impact on my business has been astounding since I started joining Women Entrepreneur groups and attending networking events. My entire way of thinking has expanded. Sharing time with other entrepreneurs will open up your mind in a ways that are surprising and invaluable. And in sharing your ideas and your message, the vision you have for your business gets sharper and you achieve more clarity. What you cannot supply for yourself, in terms of objectivity, support, encouragement, and guidance, your community members will supply for you.

You are not alone. Get out there and find your sisters. Let them help you move forward on your journey and be the very best you that you can be.

About the author: Inés Ruiz is a former Cambridge University Lecturer, military spouse turned entrepreneur. She created a multiple 6-figure online educational business in less than 16 months. After her success, she wanted to help other women create their online business - no matter their circumstances- and founded the Women Entrepreneur Community. She is the host of the show/Podcast "We Talk" in which she features other women entrepreneurs' journeys.

Krissi Barr is the president and founder of Barr Corporate Success. Her dynamic presence, instinctive strategic vision, and creative thinking produce effective, sustainable bottom-line results for her clients.

Krissi’s “Can Do” attitude generates confidence in her executive coaching clients and strategic consulting corporate clients. Throughout Krissi’s career she’s increased the profitability of nearly every organization with which she worked.

She and her husband, Dan Barr are the authors of, Plugged: Dig Out and Get the Right Things Done. They’re also the authors of, The Fido Factor: How to Get a Leg Up at Work.

A business book in the spirit of other best-selling business fables, Krissi Barr and Dan Barr draw on their collective experiences to deliver a breakout book that is engaging, engrossing and empowering. Plugged teaches readers to shoot for “PAR,” a simple, proven method to achieve success based on three foundational elements.

Lumping an entire generation of individuals together into a single group can often create over-generalizations that do not apply to many in the group. Millennials are among the largest age group today, and most millennials are young adults who have only recently started managing their money and pursuing a professional career.

While each person is a unique individual, there are some generalizations that are fairly common in this age group. In fact, when you look at millennials as a whole, you will see that there are common financial mistakes that many individuals make.

These money mistakes can unfortunately create financial stress now and in the decades to come. By identifying mistakes that you may be making, you can improve your actions to enjoy a more secure financial future.

1. Not Setting Reasonable Professional Goals

Your professional goals are directly linked to your finances. Many millennials want to catapult straight to the top of the career ladder without spending ample time getting a solid education or work-related experience.

When you consider money mistakes to avoid in your 20s, remember the importance of investing in yourself.

While some individuals are lucky to skip from the bottom of the career ladder straight to the top, it is more reasonable for most millennials to set reasonable professional goals.

These professional goals can then be linked to the personal financial goals that you set for yourself.

2. Not Saving Enough or Saving Too Much

Some millennials are focused on living life to the fullest in their young adult years, and they may save little or no money in their 20s. Others are focused on the goal of becoming a millennial millionaire, and they may take savings to extremes.

When you examine common money management mistakes, it is important to save in moderation while still spending some money on experiences.

Honestly assess your savings goals to determine if you are swinging heavily to one side of this pendulum or if you have successfully created a moderate savings plan.

3. Overspending

For decades, many young adults have turned to credit cards and loans to fund a lifestyle that they really cannot afford, and millennials are often not any different.

During your young adult years, you may spend more than older adults because you need to set up your home for the first time, buy a car and even establish a professional wardrobe for your career. You may also have student loans, and you may be focused on taking trips or otherwise enjoying life.

Living beneath your means is critical if you want to avoid common financial mistakes in your young adult years.

4. Lacking Clear Goals

There are also common personal financial planning mistakes that you could make related to setting clear goals. Some young adults either spend or save as much as possible, and they lack a clear financial plan that is designed with moderation in mind.

It is important to set a realistic budget, but you also need to have manageable short-term and long-term goals.

For example, you may want to contribute a certain amount of money to investments over the course of the next year, and you may also want to save money for a downpayment on a new home in a few years.

Another important thing to keep in mind when setting your financial goals and creating a plan is that you have to personalise your financial plan and make it suitable for you. A plan that works for someone else does not guarantee it will work for you.

Therefore, it is crucial that you know what's your spending habits are like. Try taking this quiz from MOVE to find out your what your money personality is and to uncover your financial strengths and weaknesses.

Having a clearly defined goal and knowing your strengths and weaknesses will drastically increase your chances of success.

5. Not Focusing on Long-Term Investments

There are numerous stories about individuals who have gotten rich quickly. This may be through hitting the jackpot flipping houses, buying the right stocks or launching a lucrative business out of their garage.

While many people are familiar with these stories of people benefiting from instant riches, the reality is that most young adults need to steadily save and invest to achieve future financial security.

Rather than day trading with the hope of turning a handsome profit, focus your attention on long-term investments that can pay off over the years.

6. Waiting Too Long to Buy a Home

The decision to rent or buy is a common dilemma that millennials struggle with.
Some are scarred by memories of the real estate crash in 2008. Others simply do not want to be tied down in one location or assume the responsibilities of home ownership.

There are pros and cons associated with renting as well as buying. Remember that financial benefits are more aligned with buying real estate, but you do need to be ready to take on this commitment. Be honest with yourself about your readiness in this area, and consider saving money now so that you are ready to pull the trigger when the ideal time to do so arrives.

Final Thought

Adults of all ages make common money mistakes. As a millennial, you have decades of working years in front of you. This means that you could potentially set yourself on an excellent path for financial security and success when you identify the mistakes that you are making and take steps to fix them now.

Analyze your own behaviors to determine if you are making any of these common mistakes yourself, and take steps to improve your behavior as necessary.

About the Author: Yazi is an inspired writer who enjoys writing about personal growth, self-help tips, and women's lifestyle.

When one considers launching and managing a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign, words such as measuring and optimization might sound like a lot of effort and therefore be discouraging, but they don't have to be.

A successful PPC ad campaign does not require a large team of sophisticated experts (though, a consultation with an expert agency, such as Best PPC Marketing can be very useful and save you the time of going through numerous trial and error situations by yourself). Generally, all one needs is a clear-cut set of goals, well-researched keywords, and constant focus on conversions and other types of metrics.

What are the options

First of all - establish your goals. Finding the right approach for different products or services and their target audience can take time, but only with meticulous research and planning can one find the appropriate keywords, create productive ads, and most importantly - reach the right people. For example, let's say that you have created a campaign in order to gain conversions. With this goal, it could be more effective to implement the PPA (pay-per-action) marketing scheme in which you pay not for the clicks, but rather for every action taken. That could include things like the user making a purchase, agreeing to a free trial, signing up for a newsletter, etc.

On the other hand, if brand-building is the reason you wish to begin the campaign, and you have a highly engaging and eye-catching ad prepared, PPM (pay-per-mille) campaign could be applied, which means you pay a fee for ever thousand impressions/ views. However, this type of campaign model is not very popular, and involves a lot of risks, for it might easily be taken an advantage of by spammers and unfair hosting websites.

Most likely though, the regular route of PPC is the one for your brand, especially if you run ads that are yet to gain recognition. That allows you to save money since PPM runs ads that might not be attracting attention, and you still must pay for the views they get, whilst with PPC the ad can run for free until it earns clicks. PPC setting options also allow you to avoid the harmful third-party networks and to optimize your campaign based on the analysis of your metrics.

Important things to measure

One of the points to consider is which metrics you should track most attentively. Two that are always worth exploring include the quality score (elaborated upon further) and the CTR (click-through rate), both of which allow you to evaluate the effectivity of your ad copy and the selected keywords.

However, traffic-focused metrics are just the tip of the iceberg, and can be misleading - one needs to explore what happens next after the ad has been clicked.

This brings us to conversion tracking. Leads and sales are not always consistent throughout all of your marketing networks. Luckily, AdWords offers the feature for multiple advertising channels to be compared side by side, and one can thus see where conversions are happening across different campaigns, ads, keywords, and other segments (such as the time when the ads are most effective, or the devices used most often to complete conversions).

Finally, a metric that cannot be left ignored is ROI (return on investment). Measuring your campaign's ROI means tracking leads and measuring the revenue per-lead. As the previous point that we discussed was all about calculations concerning how much you pay per conversion, this one actually reveals the value of these conversions and the profit they bring to your business. Essentially, it sometimes can be the case that the most expensive leads generate the largest amount of revenue.

What to focus on when optimizing

To make the cost of PPC more rewarding in the long-run, it is vital to optimize your ads and your landing page - they need to entice the user to complete the conversion, for each click that does not convert leads to money loss, and it goes without saying that we need to minimize that. So, what should you pay special attention to?

First, implement strategies that would lower the cost per click of your ads. That involves targeting less competitive keywords, as well as monitoring and improving your quality score on the sites that track it. For example, AdWords allows its users to check ratings for expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Overall, this is how you may see whether or not your ads are relevant to the users that have seen them and, consequently, whether you should keep running it on the specific platform.

Second, make your ads compelling, so that they would generate more clicks, yet also be relevant - so that these clicks would not come from a place of shallow curiosity, but rather genuine interest in your product or service. Here one needs to delve into the murky yet exciting waters of psychology, while also doing some simple research into advertising trends and the specifics of your target audience.

Start simple and look into what appeals to people of certain age, gender, culture, and other categories.

And last but not least, work on you landing page. It has to be compelling and easy-to-use so that users who click can easily convert. This point suggests not only conversion rate optimization (with which Google bids on your behalf based on where you are likely to get the best cost per conversion) but also the possibilities of retargeting your ads by tracking the users that did not go through with the conversion after the click. Another opportunity or a great new deal might just be what prompts the user to respond to your call to action, so remarketing is a great way how to get profit from the clicks that previously resulted in losses.

To sum all of this up, there are various approaches to paid ad optimization, and the right one usually depends on the aims and goals that you have set at the beginning of your PPC marketing campaign. Additionally, the metrics discussed in this article are some of the essential points to look at in order to evaluate your campaign's performance as well as to discover possible improvements. Which is something one should remember - there can always be made more improvements.

About the Author: Dita is from Northern Europe. She's a Digital Marketing junky and is obsessed with helping businesses grow through internet marketing. She is also SEM Manager at Bestppc.marketing by day & blogger by night.

Topic: "The Importance of Emotional Intelligence Over Academic Excellence Among Children and What Parents Can Do About It"

Devishobha Chandramouli is the founder of Kidskintha - a media site for millennial parents. You can find her voice on the Huffington Post, LifeHack, Parent.co, Addicted2Success, Inc.com, Entrepreneur, Tiny Buddha, Sivana East and other on a range of topics.

Devishobha strongly believes in positive parenting. As the mother of two girls, Devishobha started a blog four years ago titled “Kidskintha” that relayed conversations she had with her children. Readers loved the blog and it quickly took off in popularity.

“Kidskintha” is a word that is adapted from the name of a garden “Kishkindha” from the great Indian epic story, Ramayana. The garden is a place where monkey-men, known as vanarasena frolic freely and happily. The name suited Devishobha’s blog which now includes contributors from various walks of life but still focuses primarily on aspects of positive parenting concepts.

Get yourself equipped with "One Happy Parenting Hack a Week for an Entire Year(each one backed by science)" on the website.

I can trace when my life began to change course to one warm evening in 2013. I had just finished a three-year assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Nicaragua. I was barely scraping by as a part-time consultant for the local branch of the World Bank. I'd worked for nearly four years for low (sometimes no) pay, so I was ready for a proper job in international development, and to finally make some decent money.

Sifting through endless online job postings only made me feel hopeless. Nothing was a good fit for my résumé: a BA in politics, an MA in geography, years of volunteer service, and a brief stint as a project manager. Practically every international development job demanded a degree in business, finance, or economics.

Maybe it would be smarter, I thought, if I just cut to the chase and started researching MBA programs. I was excited to join my new husband as he pursued his career in foreign aid. I could picture us as globetrotters; new assignments taking us to far-flung corners of the world. I knew my own career depended on getting a first-class business education, but seriously, how in the world could I afford that? No way would I burden my new marriage-and career-with a huge pile of student debt.

The average total cost of a two-year, traditional MBA program in the U.S. now tops $150,000. A highly ranked MBA program, such as the Wharton School of Business, could add up to a whopping $220,000 when you tally up tuition, living expenses, and opportunity costs (in the form of lost salary). Even part-time and online programs can cost around $75,000.

Well, that sure wasn't happening. Then one day, the answer quite literally showed up on my doorstep. My husband and I were chatting with our friend Julio, tossing around ideas about our future prospects. Julio excitedly shared his recent experience with MOOCs. "Mooks?" I asked. He laughed. "Spelled M-O-O-C. It stands for massive open online course. I'm taking one to brush up on finance. The professor teaches at NYU, and he's famous for his work on corporate valuation. It's truly world-class. And it doesn't cost a dime!"

Then he uttered the sentence that was to change my life. "I've taken a look at other courses from Wharton, MIT, and Stanford," he said, "and I could practically refresh my MBA with the courses that are out there."

I felt a big electric charge run through me. Imagine studying with the world's top professors for the price of an Internet connection! I could just see myself earning the equivalent of an Ivy League MBA while relaxing under a palm tree, or sunning myself on a beach in Southern France. Could I really do that?

The next morning I popped open my laptop and searched for "free online business courses." Wow! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I could study management, marketing, finance, accounting, human resources, operations, innovation, and entrepreneurship with professors at the world's best business schools. Could I actually piece together enough of these courses to fashion my own tailor-made degree in business? Yes, I could. And I did! I chronicled the entire journey in a blog called "No-Pay MBA."

But before you start thinking it's as easy as 1-2-3, you have to figure out if a self-directed, MOOC-based business education will work for you. First ask yourself these key questions: Can I set aside sufficient time to study? Have I determined a specific goal I wish to achieve through independent study? Will I remain motivated to work hard in my self-directed program?

If you can answer "Heck to the yeah!" to those questions, you're ready to start educating yourself to a level equivalent to an MBA, without the mountain of student debt. Indeed, the easy availability of information, the ever-changing business landscape, and the shifting importance of traditional degrees have combined to erode the value of an actual MBA degree. And unlike medicine or law, for example, there is no degree required to practice business or own a business.

Of course, seeing "MBA" still impresses people. But that doesn't mean you are worth less than three capital letters. More and more, people value self-motivated, hard-working, and eager learners. You just need to package your business education in a way that will make a client, a boss, or a would-be investor take notice.

When I began studying business on my own, I was working as a rural enterprise and entrepreneurship specialist for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Rwanda. I secretly worried that I didn't know enough about either enterprise or entrepreneurship to deserve my title. I felt like an imposter.

But the more courses I took and the more skills I gained, the more confident I felt, and the more value I contributed to my team. No longer did I feel like an imposter. I had turned myself into the real thing, a fully prepared professional who deserved her place in the business world.

This lack of confidence (known as Imposter Syndrome) is common among women, and it can greatly hinder their professional and entrepreneurial growth. Fortunately, there is a surefire cure: education, knowledge, and skills. Even more fortunately, that cure is now more readily available and affordable than ever.

The Ruff Rider Canine Vehicle Safety Harness was first envisioned by Carl Goldberg in Boulder Co. While traveling down a windy mountain road at five mph, a car driving up the mountain, was traveling on the wrong side of the road.

When Carl slammed on his brakes to avoid a collision, his 125-pound chocolate lab was ejected from the back seat and thrown through the windshield landing on the hood of the car. After this frightening incident, a new windshield, and a trip to the veterinarian, Goldberg realized the threat that an unrestrained dog presents in a moving vehicle, and he decided to do something about it. Not only was his dog's life in danger, but the thought that his daughter, or another passenger, could have been severely injured by the dog was too much to bear.

He went to his local pet and outdoor stores to see what was available but found only inferior products that were too flimsy and did not fit properly. With an inspiration to make vehicles a safer place for dogs and the people riding with them, Goldberg consulted veterinary orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joseph “Doc Joe” Evans at the Nederland Co. Veterinary Hospital. The result; Ruff Rider Roadie is orthopedically sound and ergonomically correct. The design received an 18 claim Broad Based Patent in 1996. Later Goldberg was awarded 2 Additional Patents. Ruff Rider Roadie is hands-down, the strongest, safest canine vehicle/climbing harness in the world.

To most people, working remotely is a dream lifestyle. Most digital nomads and entrepreneurs who’ve worked remotely for a while chuckle at this, and there’s a reason for that.

It’s often advertised as the “work from the beach, anywhere and everywhere.” Although somewhat true to its statement, in reality, it’s much more complicated to get a good amount of work done from just “anywhere and everywhere”.

Work is still going to be work, no matter where you do it.

Without an office space, you’re left without a proper environment to get the work done. You’re giving up the comfortable AC, the squeaky chair in your office that you’re somewhat thankful for after a one-hour long commute on the train, the reliable wifi and VPN your office provides, and the comfort of meeting familiar faces in the office.

No, working on the beach is not feasible. The bright sunlight that kisses your skin reflects off your computer screen and burns your eyes. The soft, warm sand between your toes gets on your keyboard and audio jacks. The sweet breeze that caresses your hair also causes you to spend half your time sweeping it away from your eyes, so you could squint and hopefully make something out of your screen that’s most probably not going to be bright enough for you to make any sense out of the display.

With all these factored in, how do I get about working remotely? These are three things I do to help keep me sane, safe, and efficient:

1. Get Your Priorities Right

Working remotely cuts you some slack: no manager breathing down your next, no colleagues watching you with shifty eyes and silently judging your progress (or the lack of), no fixed office hours so you can procrastinate for as long as you’d like until your client demands to see some proof of work. But this is a freedom given to you with some expectations you need to fulfill: to be able to manage yourself, your time you spend and your actions you take well.

I’ve tried everything -- from meditation to tips from productivity hacks and books; this ultimately helped me focus and get stuff done swiftly and well:

Imagine you’re only given one hour of your day to get everything you need to get done. What’s the first couple of things on your list? Attend to those immediately. Will those Netflix or Youtube tabs remain open? Doubt it. Can the order of another flat white wait? Absolutely.

You’re priming your mind into thinking that that’s all the time you’ve got for the rest of your day to do all that you need to do. Sometimes, it may just turn out that way -- you may have to do the driving from one city to another, you may not get wifi on your 8-hour flight to Tokyo, or you may just end up tripping down a flight of stairs and break some of your key fingers you need to type efficiently on your laptop.

Who knows? You can’t tell. But at least you know you’ve got the important stuff off your checklist within the first hour of your day.

2. A Routine

Having a routine might seem like a silly tip to take when it comes to working remotely. Somehow, working remotely gave the impression that you have all the time in the world to do everything there is to do in the world.

The importance of having a routine might not become significant until later on in your pursuit for freedom and work-life balance. If you have to wake up and spend an hour deciding what to wear, what to eat, where to go, and who to meet, you’re already wasting precious energy you need to conquer the more important things in life. I’m not asking you to dress tardy or consume whatever’s within reach?—?junk and all. By all means, dress as well as you’d like. In fact, dressing up smart helps you feel better about yourself, which helps motivate you in your work too.

Plan out what you’ll wear, tasks you will work on, and people you’re going to meet the night before. You don’t want to be doing this during the first half of your day when you’re most alert.Another tip:
Try your best not to meet people unless it’s necessary or important for you and your business. I can’t tell you right off the bat which ones would be most important to you without understanding what you do and what your business is about, so you’ll have to figure this one out. Learn to make quick Skype calls, screen recordings, or Google Hangouts.

One last tip on routines:
It’s easy to fall prey into attending one too many workshops or events and spend little to no time on yourself, your ideas, and your business. Gaining exposure, helping out, and meeting new people is great?—?as long as you’re sure those are not all that you’re doing.

3. Plans, Roadmaps, Goals

What are your goals for the upcoming 13 weeks?
What are your 12-months or 18-months goals and plan?

“A goal is not always meant to be reached. It often serves simply as something to aim at.” - Bruce Lee

Having a goal and a proper roadmap to reaching that goal benefits you in many ways. It keeps you motivated and reminds you each morning what the big goal in life it is that you want to achieve. More importantly, it helps keep you on track.

With goals and plans to get there, you’re able to then have a basis for comparison: how far and well are you progressing? What can you do to get you back on track, or to help you move faster or more efficiently? This constant comparison helps you review and reflect on where you’re lacking and where you’re not. Perhaps, after a couple of months, you notice you’re consistently failing at something. Maybe it’s bookkeeping. So what do you do then?

Either get good at it or find someone who’s good at it to do it for you.

Having a plan and designing your plan is crucial, and should come before taking action.

Forget those who tell you all you need to do in life is to execute. When you don’t have a well-designed plan for your life, it’s much more difficult to perform a deep review and analysis of your lessons learnt to find ways to improve yourself!

All of this being said, what works for me may not work well for you. Take some time to yourself and prepare for your next phase of life as a remote worker if that’s your plan. Working remotely, you’ll still need to get work done. Your freedom comes in the form of being able to customize and design your life to fully optimize it and work towards a future you want for yourself. Remote work doesn’t equate to no work and full of fun. It’s the same stuff with different responsibilities -- responsibilities which, if you can handle and excel in, will get you to greater heights than you can ever imagine.

Reach out to me if you want some tips on your current remote work lifestyle / future remote work opportunities.

1. Promoting only one week in advance and not often enough

Over 25% of companies send out the first emails inviting contacts to webinars at least 15 days before the event. If you start your promotion campaign two full weeks in advance, you have a larger window to build attendance numbers and remind attendees.

The art of driving webinar registration is all about catching people at a moment of receptivity with a message that resonates with them. Extending webinar promotions beyond a week and delivering multiple messages and email types will increase your chance of successfully hitting that moment of receptivity.

2. Not respecting the audience's time

People start to lose interest after an hour. Sometimes your audience will be using their lunch period to watch your webinar.

People are busy. If you market your webinar at an hour, keep it at an hour. If you market your webinar masterclass at 2 hours, keep it at 2 hours.

3. Using a double opt-in feature

I get the double opt-in argument. And some email providers strongly encourage using the double opt-in as a confirmation of not spamming.

However, people are busy and will forget to confirm subscription. If it makes sense for your business and your email provider allows you to turn off the double opt-in feature, do so.

4. Not providing an add-to-calendar tool

If you don't provide a quick and easy way to put your webinar on their business calendar, chances are good that your prospects will double-book or miss your event.

THE SOLUTION Calendaring tools dramatically improve registration-to attendee conversion rates. Embed a calendar tool on every landing page, allowing registrants to place your webinars on their business calendars. Include login details in the information that goes to the calendar.

5. Not visible appealing and quite boring

Make visibly appealing and keep the attention of your audience by not speaking too long on any one slide.

6. Not engaging with your audience

Bring your audience into the presentation. This is not a lecture.

7. Too many texts

Too much text will be hard on the eyes.

8. Letting people know there's a replay

Don't let people know there's a replay off the bat. By doing so, you are training people to watch the replay. You want your registrants to attend live.

9. Mostly selling and not providing enough useful content

No one wants to be sold to. Lead with value and the sales will come.

10. Not analyzing the data

Reflect on the numbers. Look back and see what needs improvement.

About the Author: Aprille Reed is a Business Strategist + Webinar Funnel Architect for ambitious online coaches and consultants who struggle with lack of time and trading dollars for hours. Aprille helps her clients scale their business with webinars that consistently make them more sales and break the income ceiling so that they can have the income to do whatever they want. Aprille is also a Certified Social Media & Community Manager and Tapping Into Wealth coach. She has been featured on various blogs, podcasts as well as online courses such as Lady Boss Blogger, ceoMom Talk Podcast, and FB Biz Page with Ease.

With over 8+ year’s entrepreneurial experience, Aprille clients have been able to achieve success with business clarity, building their email list and selling high ticket packages with high ticket funnels. www.aprillereed.com

Megan Shea is the Co-Founder of The Soulfull Project, a startup company dedicated to making high-quality, wholesome food available to those in need.

For every serving of their delicious multi-grain hot cereal purchased, they donate a serving of their 4 Grain Blend to a food bank in your region. Megan and Co-founder Chip Heim, were inspired to take action after witnessing firsthand the severity of food insecurity in our country.

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Ready to Make a Change in Your Business? How to Get Rid of What's Not Working & Do What You Love (Really!)

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Not sure if you should offer a new service? product? get rid of what
you’re doing? You can get the support to figure out what’s next and
start your new thing.

In these sessions, we’ll uncover what you really want to do next and
what is no longer working for you. And we’ll create a plan of action for
your next steps.Learn more here: http://dbaileycoach.com/blog/work-with-me/

Make today your day to Shop Small, and let’s make it the biggest day of the year for small business.

I have learned how to identify this in others and how to show-up this way myself.

Here are some tips that will help you step into this place and recognize others who are doing the same.

1. Come from a place of service yourself. Many people talk about this in the coaching industry – come from a place of service before you get on a sales call. In order to truly come from service, you must believe in something bigger then you.

A force that is guiding you and supporting you. When you can adopt this belief, you will know you will always be taken care of and then you truly can operate from a place of service. Imagine not worrying about where your next client is going to come from or how you’re going to pay the bills. Think about how much differently you would show up in front of a potential client.

2. Come from a place of service in ALL areas of your life. For me the missing piece in the coaching industry was this. It doesn’t stop with business. It is about giving and being of service in every area of your life. Maybe a friend needs help or your child needs some extra love. Maybe it’s taking the time to help a stranger in line at the grocery store. This is a way of being.

It’s also about giving legitimately. Not because you’re trying to get something in return, but you cause you genuinely want to help. You’re putting your own agenda aside and helping someone else.
3. Does it mean you don’t take care of yourself and practice self-care? No. Giving to yourself (receiving) is just as important. When you feel good you have more to give. I love the expression “giving from your saucer, not your teacup”. Think about when you’re happy and relaxed and how much more energy you have for others, as opposed to trying to give from a burned out, overwhelmed place. That causes resentment and anger instead. You will show-up differently when you’re more at peace and have so much more to offer others.
4. When you operate from a “giving” mentality instead of “getting” people will naturally reciprocate. They will remember you and think of you. You will be one of their centers of influence and in their circle of trust. Your relationships will be strengthened and meaningful. Business will take on a whole new identity and strengthen relationships and community in a powerful way.

You will have some of the most deep and meaningful connections with other people. It’s this energy that is going to change the world. With love being the energy that is extended out between human beings and creating that powerful ripple effect. That is the world I want to be a part of.

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States.

Because of the longstanding traditions of the holiday, the celebration
often extends to the weekend that falls closest to the day it is
celebrated.

Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations.
Historically, Thanksgiving had roots in religious and cultural
tradition. Today, Thanksgiving is primarily celebrated as a secular
holiday.-from Wikipedia

No - I'm not having a midlife crisis and I'm definitely not throwing in the towel.

This purging and feeling of deep release is leading me in on a straight path to opening myself up for even more.

I am letting go of the conditions and what's more, the attachments that have affixed themselves to my goals themselves.

Like the tiny Remora fish next to its sizable host, The Great White Shark, our goals can at times bring with them uninvited conditions, partners and strings.

After spending the last 15 years of my life working with big dreamers and high achievers, I have witnessed more attachment and conditions riding sidecar to the big goals more times than I can count.

I've learned that when we envision our goals as finish lines and we map out the course with the corresponding deadlines for ourselves, there can be a tendency to see any outcome other than the trophy as a big ol' fat failure.

Have you been there?

We set our sights on the prize, we put our heads down,charge ahead, refusing to stop until we get there even when all signs are pointing to a course correction.

But what if we stopped because somewhere along the way we discovered that we didn't want to run that particular race anymore?

I can remember standing in the hallway of my corporate career...the name on the door, more meeting invites than I could keep up with and big expectations.

I was walking back to my office one day and I watched the big boss down the hallway. I watched him shaking hands and laughing and welcoming donors in to his office to talk about their investments in the upcoming capital campaign.

I can remember feeling like a lightning bolt hit me between the eyes…

I didn't want to sit in that chair.

I didn't want that life or career, yet here I was plugging away, day in and day out for it.

I was literally being groomed for that seat and I didn't want it.

Have you ever been in a space and time in your life when you were living a life that no longer belonged to you?

Our greatest opportunity is to develop a greater ability to listen to what we are being called to.

But here's the thing; when our commitment is to stay in alignment with our deepest truths at all times, we have to get really real about what is and isn't congruent for us to shift our trajectory.

What I mean is; we have to get honest when the goals we're chasing are no longer the goals we want.

And we have to be okay with wiping the slate clean, even if it means doing so before we've been able to check that box.

You see, my friends, everything is feedback, every single circumstance and event of your life is data:

The launch that flopped, that dream client and the nightmare one, too.

The way your body feels and looks.

The way you feel when your feet hit the floor in the morning.

Every single little strand of information is a feedback loop helping us navigate our lives and live more firmly planted in our truth.

When we look at life in this way, failure simply cannot exist.

When we are tenacious in our approach to experiencing life more fully, serving in an even bigger way and pivoting when we are called to pivot…our lives transform.

We begin to seek the "data" in our lives rather than the affirmations for our achievements.

When I gave my notice at my corporate career, it came as a surprise to some my colleagues, but the ones who really knew me...the ones who saw in to my heart, they could not have been more supportive.

It's funny what happens when we give ourselves permission to change course, to reroute and drive in the direction of what feels like home to us.

If you're feeling that urge to wipe the slate clean in some aspect of your life, career or business, I urge you to remind yourself that it's never a loss to start over with new information.

Trusting yourself is always a win.

And the wide open space where your old dreams used to live makes way for a whole new world of possibility. About the Author: Amber Lilyestrom is a transformational branding & business strategist, writer and speaker. She has been featured in Entrepreneur and Working Mother Magazine and is the host of The Amber Lilyestrom Show podcast and helps entrepreneurs turn their passions in to heart-centered brands and thriving businesses.

From idea conception to the construction of the business and its digital landscape, Amber supports visionaries, leaders and disruptivators in changing the world and their lives.

Amber spent 10 years working in collegiate athletics marketing, managing the University of New Hampshire Wildcats brand, as well as teaching sports marketing and mentoring student interns. She was recognized as one of the top sports marketing professionals in the nation.

About How to Make Your Family Business Last

America’s family businesses are in crisis. From huge, multi-national corporations to tiny, local mom and pop shops, such businesses form the backbone of the American economy – and yet a whopping 70 percent don’t make it past the first generation. A mere three percent make it past the third generation.

This reality not only causes a huge dent in the U.S. economy and job market, it reveals a deeper fracturing in American families, with older generations finding themselves unable to communicate their vision and values to the next.

Why is this? Why do so many family businesses fail? What does it take to have a strong, sustainable family business? And how can entrepreneurs make it so that their business not only survives, but thrives?

In her latest book, “How to Make Your Family Business Last,” set to hit shelves on October 10th, bestselling author and acclaimed speaker Mitzi Perdue offers a fresh and exciting take on these questions. Combining academic research with practical, experiential advice, Perdue lays out a comprehensive plan for families and entrepreneurs who want to create a lasting legacy.

“Success in business is never because of the efforts or identity of one single individual,” said Perdue. “It’s always a matter of cooperation, collaboration – and, most importantly, culture. I’ve watched so many families go through immense pain because they didn’t have a strong, supportive culture – and I’ve seen other families thrive because they put the work in to shape the kind of culture that is conducive to success.”

Special note: author Mitzy Perdue is offering a $10 discount on her book
especially for Secrets of Success blog readers. Go here to get your
copy: http://mitziperdue.com/discount/

About Mitzi Perdue

Mitzi is a businesswoman, author, and a master storyteller. Her most recent book, “Tough Man, Tender Chicken: Business and Life Lessons from Frank Perdue,” was a bestseller on Amazon. She is also the author of, “I Didn’t Bargain for This”, her story of growing up as a hotel heiress.

She is also a professional speaker on family businesses, drawing on her lifelong observations as a member of the Henderson family (the family behind Sheraton Hotels), and of the Perdue family. She has presented in cities all across the United States on how to embed a positive culture across generational lines via practical, effective tools and tips.

As a nationally syndicated columnist, she has written more than 1600 articles, and as a nationally syndicated TV hostess and producer, she produced more than 400 half-hour shows. Additionally, Mitzi is also the founder of one of the larger wine grape companies in California, and she is a former president of the 35,000-member American Agri-Women, the oldest and largest American farm women’s organization.Website link: https://mitziperdue.com/

Deb Bailey: Welcome to the blog, Mitzi. What are some of the important points in your book?

Mitzi Perdue: Happy to be here, Deb. How to Make Your Family Business Last, a treasury of checklists, templates, resources, and tips, is about embedding the culture that it takes to make a family business last. Every family has a culture, but too often, the culture comes about by accident instead of by design. When you leave the culture to accident, the family members may not learn the all-important lessons, such as,

"You can't always be right!"
"You are a steward for future generations."
"Relationships are more important than money."
"Live beneath your means."
"Philanthropy is essential."
"Be someone whom others are justified in trusting."
"You're part of something bigger than yourself."
"You have a responsibility, not to just yourself or your family, but also to the employees, the consumers, the lenders, the suppliers…in fact the whole community. In other words, it's not all about you!"

Deb: Those are certainly important things for family businesses to focus on. What inspired you to come up with the idea for your book?

Mitzi: I wrote these three books to share some of the ways that business families can join the 30 percent of family businesses that make it to the next generation--as opposed to the unfortunate 70 percent that don't make it to the next generation.

The pain that this causes in human lives can't be overestimated. When a family business fails, it doesn't just injure the family: It harms the employees, the suppliers, the consumers, the lenders, and in the end, the tax base of the whole community.

On the other hand, when a family business does well, at its best it can be a blessing to all the people whose lives it touches.

Deb: Well, I think your family business has done extremely well! You have a lot to share. What advice would you give to women entrepreneurs who are just starting out?

In my own career, up until my early 40s, I had never really done much with my education or whatever abilities I had. Then one day, I realized what was holding me back: I was afraid of failure.

That day, I decided to redefine failure. For me, the only real failure would be not trying and not giving my all.

My attitude ever since has been, "Just the act of trying makes you a winner. As part of trying, you'll have learned new things, met new people, acquired new skills, and you'll be better positioned for the next time you try."

This played out in a remarkable way in my own life. As I said, up until almost my 40s, I really hadn't done much with my life.

But that year, I began trying for some things I hadn't dared try for before. I decided to no longer fear rejection slips and began submitting articles to magazines and newspapers. I auditioned for a television show and then a radio show.

Within one year of losing my fear of failure, I began a career that led to my becoming a syndicated columnist, a TV hostess, and a professional public speaker. It also led to successful real estate investments.

I got into women's agricultural politics and had the extraordinary joy of being president of America's oldest and largest farm women's organization.

Losing my fear of failure has meant gaining undreamed-of successes. But all of this meant huge amounts of efforts and countless times of falling on my face. And by the way, although I'm in favor of a positive attitude, I'm even more in favor of working like crazy, including studying, taking courses, attending conferences, reading books, practicing…in short, doing everything you can think of to improve your odds of success.

My challenge for each of you is: Are there any areas of your life where fear of failure is holding you back? When you try for something, are you giving it everything you've got, or are you holding back?

Try redefining failure: It's not failure when you don't succeed; you're a winner for trying! Win or lose, as long as you gave it everything you've got, that means that your efforts will be laying the groundwork for future success!

Deb: I totally agree! Fear of failure ends up destroying so many dreams. Speaking of dreams, a lot of people dream of becoming authors. Any tips to share with someone who wants to be published?

Mitzi: Some people are born writers, but for the rest of us, this means taking classes, studying books on good writing, and paying attention to what works for writers. It also means a lot of practice. I figure that just as you can't be a good tennis player without lots of lessons and practice, you can't be a good writer without getting good advice and practicing a lot. As for getting published, although I've had 20 books published, today I'm a fan of self-publishing. My reasons are:

1. Less Time. The publisher I use, R.J. Myers Publishing & Consulting Co. can have your book in print six weeks after you give them the final copy. With a conventional publisher, you'll probably have to wait a year.

2. More Money. I've rarely made much money with conventional publishers because I was lucky if I made a dollar a copy. But with self-publishing (and this will vary according to the length and layout of your book), I can pay $5 a book and sell it for $20. The profit all comes to me.

3. Artistic Control. Trade publishers rarely allow you to control the layout or the cover design. That's important to me and I've been much happier with the results when I've been heavily involved.

4. Distribution. The trade publisher can get you in book stores, but since 70 percent of books are sold on-line, and since 80 percent of my books are sold as part of my speaking engagements or media appearances, having the book in book stores isn't a big deal for me.

Deb: 20 books! That's terrific. Do you have a favorite writing environment?

Mitzi: Yes, my writing environment has to be phone-free. All my close friends know that I don't use the phone when I'm writing, and they also know that this isn't directed at them: I'm that way with everyone. I not only turn off the phone, I have it in another room so I'm not tempted. For me, phone calls, even if it's only a five-minute phone call, can take me 20 minutes afterwards to get back into the deep concentration that works for me when writing. I'm telephone dropout, by necessity. I take comfort in knowing that there are many Millennials who look on a phone call as an attack, and I understand their attitude.

Deb: Trying to stay away from distractions so that you can write is a challenge. You've accomplished so much, what inspires you to do the work you do?

Mitzi: I figure I have a mission in life, and it's to increase happiness and decrease misery. I love to joke that I would like to save the world, but since that's not on offer, the next best for me is to try to share current knowledge about how families can be high-functioning.

Deb: That knowledge is very valuable. What do you think are the top 3 traits an entrepreneur must have?

Mitzi Persistence, energy, vision.

Deb: Who do you think will benefit most from reading your book?

Mitzi: I'm
in favor of all entrepreneurs reading this. It's so easy to put all
your effort into building your business while forgetting the importance
of family. What good does it do to succeed financially and fail as a
family? Our deepest sources of happiness over time will come from our
intimate relationships, and it's worth putting in the time and effort to
get this right, and I'm here to show you how. I share the latest
academic research combined with a lifetime of observing what successful
families did to create and maintain a strong, loving, high-functioning
family.

Deb: Thanks so much for joining me on the Secrets of Success blog. Please share where your book can be found.

Mitzi: I enjoyed being here! If your readers would like an autographed copy, they can have it for $10 by going to this web address: http://mitziperdue.com/discount/ How to Make Your Family Business Last is normally $27.95.

Mission of the Women Entrepreneurs Radio™ Show

Help women succeed in their entrepreneurial endeavors, providing valuable tips and resources from women who have been there

Promote women-owned businesses and support the economic empowerment of women

Entrepreneurs from countries including, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Tanzania, France, Ecuador, Uruguay, Germany and the United Kingdom have been featured on over 400 episodes of the show.Reviews for Women Entrepreneurs Radio™

"The whole experience for my interview with Women Entrepreneurs Radio was seamless. Deborah's team was efficient and accurate in communicating the details, and the process was well organized. Deborah herself immediately put me at ease. From the moment we started talking I felt comfortable with her. She was prepared with questions to guide the conversation and bring us back on track whenever necessary, but listened and allowed the conversation to unfold. I enjoyed our chat, and I am glad we get to share it with the listeners."

-Melissa Forziat
Melissa Forziat Events
www.melissaforziatevents.com

Great Podcast for Women Entrepreneurs

"I found this podcast last week while on social media and I haven't stopped listening yet! The interviews offer so much value. I really enjoyed in episode with Melinda Chen in her discussion about selling to big clients. She provided great insight on who to sell something I am not always comfortable with.

I also enjoyed Ronnika Ann, she is such an intellegent young lady with a wealth of information. I can't wait to listen to all 300+ episodes. I Love this Podcast! Keep up the great work!"
-Lakisha Sarbah

*Women Entrepreneurs Radio has recently been added to Google Play, YouTube and LinkedIn.*

Topic: "How to Turn Pain into Purpose"

Hilary L. Jastram is the personification of turning pain into purpose.

As a chronically ill entrepreneur, helping others craft their missions and messages wasn't enough. She wanted to improve the resources and support for entrepreneurs who are sick and disabled to help them find their own brand of success.

In September 2017, she launched Sick Biz, the only organization of its kind and a non-profit organization to help this very special community.

In this lively conversation, we talk about:

How she went from becoming unable to work to starting her own business, then creating a non-profit

The mindset blocks she had to work through as she launched her businesses

Her advice for other entrepreneurs who are also experiencing health challenges

Hilary L. Jastram is the founder of J. Hill Marketing & Creative Services, an agency specializing in premier copywriting, editing and book editing for Fortune 500 brands and the “one-percent,” superstar entrepreneurs.

She is an author, editor at The Good Men Project, and contributor to Influencive, The Huffington Post and The Mighty, among other large-scale publications. To date, she has published over 150 articles on business and personal development.

She is also the founder of Sick Biz, "an organization dedicated to providing support, resources, hacks, and hope to entrepreneurs affected by chronic illness, pain, disability, and sickness." Listen to the Sick Biz Buzz podcast for more inspiration and prescriptive insights on living a motivated and emotionally healthy life.